RUNNING TIDE£2.50/€4.25/US$5.00

Voice of Amida-shu, Amida-kai and The Amida Trust: Pureland Buddhism: Absolute Grace, Total Engagement: Issue 27, Summer 2012

Running Tide

Running Tide offers a voice for faith and practice, as well as critical, existential and socially engaged enquiry within the broad framework of Pureland Buddhism.

We publish short articles, poetry, pictures, interviews, comment and Buddhist resource materials.

Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Amida Trust, Amida-shu or Amida-kai.

Running Tide is distributed by:

Amida TrustSukhavati21 Sussex WayLondon N7 6RT

Correspondence and contributions Submissions for consideration should be sent to the Editor at: runningtide@amidatrust.com

Amida TrustA religious charity established in UK, registration number 1060589, for the furtherance of Buddhism. The Trust sponsors a wide range of Buddhist activities. The Amida Trust is a member of the Network of Buddhist Organisations in the UK, the European Buddhist Union, as well as the World Buddhist University, and has mutual affiliation with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Amida Order & SchoolThe Amida Order and Amida School are a religious order and communion, respectively, following the Pureland tradition, established under the auspices of the Amida Trust. In this periodical the letters OAB after a name indicate membership of the Order of Amida Buddha and the letters MAS indicate membership of the Amida School. The Amida School is also referred to as Amida-shu. All Order members are also School members.

Amida-KaiThe Amida Association, an association for spirituality and its application. Amida-kai is the association for everybody interested in the Trust's work, for the application of spiritual principles to empirical world problems, and to the exploration of the meaning of spirituality irrespective of faith alignment.

RT 2

Membership Of Amida-Kai is open to anybody who supports Amida Trust and is interested in spirituality and its application. To join please send a donation (£20 per year suggested) to Amida Trust with a covering letter. Membership of the Kai does not imply membership of the Amida Order or School or any particular religious affiliation. For subscription queries contact: Sukhavati.

Praise and worshipDharmavidya David Brazier OAB“

To keep offering support to the Amida India Sangha, and to keep teaching English we need your help..

Dankwart Kleinjans“W

A Pureland Sutra by John MasefieldKaspalita OAB“I

What’s on guide

We live in a universe that glitters in every direction.

We consciously add our voices to the chant and welcome love into all our lives.

Praise this seed and all the conditions which make it just as it is.”

”

Faith, show me the meaningSumaya OAB“It’d not a great thing, to be dependent.”

From Amida DelhiMichael Cosgrove“In time, the kids do learn.”

Amida India appeal“

.”

I call upon the Bodhisattva who sees and hears the sufferings of the worldRichard Ollier MAS“If anything can transform my cupidity, hatred and delusion - it is the calling.”

(Un)conditional love some thoughts and some questions...

e can only love people we know...”

Monday NembutsuRobert McCarthy MAS“

”

PerceptionKatrien Sercu OAB“

Poem: Early MorningBarb MacCarl

n Masefield’s Pureland, there are silver sands and birds that sing the dharma.”

4

6

8

11

12

14

15

Cover photo ‘Kannon near Fushimi Inari’ by DJ Anderson - Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/dja/314082261/

EditorialKaspalita

RT 3

Faith and praise are like love, hard to fake. When we are truly moved by

something our celebrations are spontaneous. Some nembutsu are like this,

“Namo Amida Bu!” Thank you for the unconditioned Buddha, for the

Pureland and for the “universe that glitters in ever direction” as

Dharmavidaya calls it over the page.

What can we do to be more loving? Perhaps having some sense that it’s good to

do is a good place to start.

In his article, Dharmavidya talks about how praise and worship are often

missed out in Buddhism in the West. He talks about how important they are and

how, in liberation, one praises everything.

Sumaya has a talent for sharing her spiritual journey. She is willing to open up

and share the questions she is facing in her life - an attitude that I find worthy of

praise. In her column she talks about some of the questions she is thinking

about right now, and how it is faith that can show her the way through.

As a Western Zen Buddhist, Michael Cosgrove struggled with some of these

ideas of faith. Can it really be so simple as saying the Buddha’s name? He

writes about his time in India, giving us a sense of the project there and of his

own journey, and of moving towards a position of respect (perhaps fondness?)

for Pureland teachings.

The project in India always needs our support. The Delhi project is thriving, and

with new friends in Assam (where we’d like to place a volunteer this year) we

need your help more than ever. Have a look on page 11 to see how you can

help.

The beautiful Kannon on the front cover of this issue is dedicated to Richard

Ollier, who writes movingly about his own relationship with Kuan Yin. A very

personal account of faith and praise.

Love and its Disappointment, the title of Dharmavidya’s most recent book

describes how love works in this conditioned world. We love, and we are

disappointed. In this issue, Dankwart responds to the book with some questions

and thoughts about how possible it is to love unconditionally.

In RT 24 I published Katrien’s poem Faithful. In this issue she returns to the

poem and tells us what she has learnt since then... She writes in praise of

sunflower seeds.

Barb MacCarl got in touch with Fiona and me when we were wearing our

literary, non-Buddhist, hats, but it turns out she’s a Pureland Buddhist from

Canada, and I’m delighted she’s let me reproduce her poem here.

And finally... Just a few days ago, by chance, I heard a few verses of a John

Masefield poem. I could have sworn I was hearing an ancient account of the

Pureland. It’s wonderful to be able to share some of Masefield’s vision, and my

reflections, with you at the end of this issue.

Thanks and praise to all the contributors.

For the colour edition go online to: http://issuu.com/kaspalita. (Do share the

link online.) Namo Amida Bu!

16

18

17

21

Running Tide

Running Tide offers a voice for faith and practice, as well as critical, existential and socially engaged enquiry within the broad framework of Pureland Buddhism.

We publish short articles, poetry, pictures, interviews, comment and Buddhist resource materials.

Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Amida Trust, Amida-shu or Amida-kai.

Running Tide is distributed by:

Amida TrustSukhavati21 Sussex WayLondon N7 6RT

Correspondence and contributions Submissions for consideration should be sent to the Editor at: runningtide@amidatrust.com

Amida TrustA religious charity established in UK, registration number 1060589, for the furtherance of Buddhism. The Trust sponsors a wide range of Buddhist activities. The Amida Trust is a member of the Network of Buddhist Organisations in the UK, the European Buddhist Union, as well as the World Buddhist University, and has mutual affiliation with the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

Amida Order & SchoolThe Amida Order and Amida School are a religious order and communion, respectively, following the Pureland tradition, established under the auspices of the Amida Trust. In this periodical the letters OAB after a name indicate membership of the Order of Amida Buddha and the letters MAS indicate membership of the Amida School. The Amida School is also referred to as Amida-shu. All Order members are also School members.

Amida-KaiThe Amida Association, an association for spirituality and its application. Amida-kai is the association for everybody interested in the Trust's work, for the application of spiritual principles to empirical world problems, and to the exploration of the meaning of spirituality irrespective of faith alignment.

RT 2

Membership Of Amida-Kai is open to anybody who supports Amida Trust and is interested in spirituality and its application. To join please send a donation (£20 per year suggested) to Amida Trust with a covering letter. Membership of the Kai does not imply membership of the Amida Order or School or any particular religious affiliation. For subscription queries contact: Sukhavati.

Praise and worshipDharmavidya David Brazier OAB“

To keep offering support to the Amida India Sangha, and to keep teaching English we need your help..

Dankwart Kleinjans“W

A Pureland Sutra by John MasefieldKaspalita OAB“I

What’s on guide

We live in a universe that glitters in every direction.

We consciously add our voices to the chant and welcome love into all our lives.

Praise this seed and all the conditions which make it just as it is.”

”

Faith, show me the meaningSumaya OAB“It’d not a great thing, to be dependent.”

From Amida DelhiMichael Cosgrove“In time, the kids do learn.”

Amida India appeal“

.”

I call upon the Bodhisattva who sees and hears the sufferings of the worldRichard Ollier MAS“If anything can transform my cupidity, hatred and delusion - it is the calling.”

(Un)conditional love some thoughts and some questions...

e can only love people we know...”

Monday NembutsuRobert McCarthy MAS“

”

PerceptionKatrien Sercu OAB“

Poem: Early MorningBarb MacCarl

n Masefield’s Pureland, there are silver sands and birds that sing the dharma.”

4

6

8

11

12

14

15

Cover photo ‘Kannon near Fushimi Inari’ by DJ Anderson - Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/dja/314082261/

EditorialKaspalita

RT 3

Faith and praise are like love, hard to fake. When we are truly moved by

something our celebrations are spontaneous. Some nembutsu are like this,

“Namo Amida Bu!” Thank you for the unconditioned Buddha, for the

Pureland and for the “universe that glitters in ever direction” as

Dharmavidaya calls it over the page.

What can we do to be more loving? Perhaps having some sense that it’s good to

do is a good place to start.

In his article, Dharmavidya talks about how praise and worship are often

missed out in Buddhism in the West. He talks about how important they are and

how, in liberation, one praises everything.

Sumaya has a talent for sharing her spiritual journey. She is willing to open up

and share the questions she is facing in her life - an attitude that I find worthy of

praise. In her column she talks about some of the questions she is thinking

about right now, and how it is faith that can show her the way through.

As a Western Zen Buddhist, Michael Cosgrove struggled with some of these

ideas of faith. Can it really be so simple as saying the Buddha’s name? He

writes about his time in India, giving us a sense of the project there and of his

own journey, and of moving towards a position of respect (perhaps fondness?)

for Pureland teachings.

The project in India always needs our support. The Delhi project is thriving, and

with new friends in Assam (where we’d like to place a volunteer this year) we

need your help more than ever. Have a look on page 11 to see how you can

help.

The beautiful Kannon on the front cover of this issue is dedicated to Richard

Ollier, who writes movingly about his own relationship with Kuan Yin. A very

personal account of faith and praise.

Love and its Disappointment, the title of Dharmavidya’s most recent book

describes how love works in this conditioned world. We love, and we are

disappointed. In this issue, Dankwart responds to the book with some questions

and thoughts about how possible it is to love unconditionally.

In RT 24 I published Katrien’s poem Faithful. In this issue she returns to the

poem and tells us what she has learnt since then... She writes in praise of

sunflower seeds.

Barb MacCarl got in touch with Fiona and me when we were wearing our

literary, non-Buddhist, hats, but it turns out she’s a Pureland Buddhist from

Canada, and I’m delighted she’s let me reproduce her poem here.

And finally... Just a few days ago, by chance, I heard a few verses of a John

Masefield poem. I could have sworn I was hearing an ancient account of the

Pureland. It’s wonderful to be able to share some of Masefield’s vision, and my

reflections, with you at the end of this issue.

Thanks and praise to all the contributors.

For the colour edition go online to: http://issuu.com/kaspalita. (Do share the

link online.) Namo Amida Bu!

16

18

17

21

against the things that the previous

generation stood for. Of course, at that

stage one was not really free at all as the

ideas that one clung to were just as much

determined by their forebears as they

would have been if one had been a total

conformist. Reaction does not constitute

liberty. Real freedom, paradoxically, comes from

putting something, and in due course,

many things, on a higher level than self.

Eventually self disappears altogether, they

say, but not many of us get to that point,

not, at least, for extended periods of time,

though the glimpses can be wonderful and

encouraging. In Buddhism what we put on

a pedestal are the Buddha, Dharma and

therefore, is nothing to do with sectarian

loyalty or choosing this faction over that

one. It is to do with recognising that there

is wisdom and love to be had, as it says in

the Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra, in every

direction. Worship is fullness of awe. We may have ritual forms in which we

worship the West "because that is where

Amida is" and that is fine because it gives

meaning to our act of devotion, but Amida's

"West" is everywhere really. If one can

worship in one direction then one can

worship in all directions. In every direction

there is something one can worship, many

things, many many things, and each of

them reflects the light in particular colours

and shades. That is the glory of this life. If

Praise and worship are not what

people in the West nowadays

generally associate with Buddhism.

This, however, is substantially a modern

prejudice. Many people nowadays are

attracted to Buddhism because they see it

as different from the monotheistic

religions, which it is. However, this then

easily leads to a rejection of anything that

has a superficial similarity to anything

that happens in those approaches. In fact,

Buddhism is about overcoming the ego and

this, for many Asian Buddhists, means

reaching out to something beyond

themselves. If one cannot put anything

"higher", as it were, than oneself, then the

danger of one's spiritual practice just being

an exercise in narcissism fundamentally,

even if couched in pleasant sounding

language, is actually quite high. As we in

the West take on Buddhism, we are, to a

substantial degree remaking it in the

image of our phantasy, but this phantasy

is, as yet, only at an adolescent stage of

development. You will remember that when

you were adolescent - it was certainly true

of me anyway - one tended to believe that

one was "free" in that one was in rebellion

Praise and worshipRunning Tide: Faith & praise

RT 5RT 4

Praise and Worshipby Dharmavidya

Sangha. Then all buddhas, all dharmas

and all sanghas. Then we start to esteem

the ten thousand things as each and every

one of them acts as a mirror of the

universal light. We live in a universe that

glitters in every direction with the glory of

the buddhas. But if we try to skip the early

stage, it is commonly the case that we do

not really get to the later one either since

our skipping is motivated by an over-high

self-evaluation. One of the things that has gone wrong with

worship as a form of practice is that people

have fallen out over who or what one

should worship. Of course, from a Buddhist

perspective, everything that is worthy of

worship is a buddha, a teacher of

compassion, wisdom and truth. But then

an earthworm can be so if you approach it

in the right way. Worship, one must stress,

I can let my ego subordinate itself to the

glory that is all around me then I can find

peace, compassion, creativity and liberation

wherever I go. I can swim in an ocean of

other-power. Following Vasubandhu, we can talk about

worship as "with the body", praise as "with

the voice" and then what is left for the

mind is nei quan and chih quan which

come together as nembutsu. Beyond all

that lies liberation which, from a Pureland

perspective, takes care of itself, which is

why we worship in the first place, because

worship is essentially a way of saying

"Thank you". The most basic Buddhist

attitude is gratitude. Gratitude is the other

side of the coin of generosity. They go

together. We are the recipients of the dana

paramita of all the Buddhas. We are

protected by their sila paramita,

we start to esteem the ten thousand things

photo: Buddhists of many traditions worship at Milton Keynes Peace Stupa, by Kaspalita

against the things that the previous

generation stood for. Of course, at that

stage one was not really free at all as the

ideas that one clung to were just as much

determined by their forebears as they

would have been if one had been a total

conformist. Reaction does not constitute

liberty. Real freedom, paradoxically, comes from

putting something, and in due course,

many things, on a higher level than self.

Eventually self disappears altogether, they

say, but not many of us get to that point,

not, at least, for extended periods of time,

though the glimpses can be wonderful and

encouraging. In Buddhism what we put on

a pedestal are the Buddha, Dharma and

therefore, is nothing to do with sectarian

loyalty or choosing this faction over that

one. It is to do with recognising that there

is wisdom and love to be had, as it says in

the Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra, in every

direction. Worship is fullness of awe. We may have ritual forms in which we

worship the West "because that is where

Amida is" and that is fine because it gives

meaning to our act of devotion, but Amida's

"West" is everywhere really. If one can

worship in one direction then one can

worship in all directions. In every direction

there is something one can worship, many

things, many many things, and each of

them reflects the light in particular colours

and shades. That is the glory of this life. If

Praise and worship are not what

people in the West nowadays

generally associate with Buddhism.

This, however, is substantially a modern

prejudice. Many people nowadays are

attracted to Buddhism because they see it

as different from the monotheistic

religions, which it is. However, this then

easily leads to a rejection of anything that

has a superficial similarity to anything

that happens in those approaches. In fact,

Buddhism is about overcoming the ego and

this, for many Asian Buddhists, means

reaching out to something beyond

themselves. If one cannot put anything

"higher", as it were, than oneself, then the

danger of one's spiritual practice just being

an exercise in narcissism fundamentally,

even if couched in pleasant sounding

language, is actually quite high. As we in

the West take on Buddhism, we are, to a

substantial degree remaking it in the

image of our phantasy, but this phantasy

is, as yet, only at an adolescent stage of

development. You will remember that when

you were adolescent - it was certainly true

of me anyway - one tended to believe that

one was "free" in that one was in rebellion

Praise and worshipRunning Tide: Faith & praise

RT 5RT 4

Praise and Worshipby Dharmavidya

Sangha. Then all buddhas, all dharmas

and all sanghas. Then we start to esteem

the ten thousand things as each and every

one of them acts as a mirror of the

universal light. We live in a universe that

glitters in every direction with the glory of

the buddhas. But if we try to skip the early

stage, it is commonly the case that we do

not really get to the later one either since

our skipping is motivated by an over-high

self-evaluation. One of the things that has gone wrong with

worship as a form of practice is that people

have fallen out over who or what one

should worship. Of course, from a Buddhist

perspective, everything that is worthy of

worship is a buddha, a teacher of

compassion, wisdom and truth. But then

an earthworm can be so if you approach it

in the right way. Worship, one must stress,

I can let my ego subordinate itself to the

glory that is all around me then I can find

peace, compassion, creativity and liberation

wherever I go. I can swim in an ocean of

other-power. Following Vasubandhu, we can talk about

worship as "with the body", praise as "with

the voice" and then what is left for the

mind is nei quan and chih quan which

come together as nembutsu. Beyond all

that lies liberation which, from a Pureland

perspective, takes care of itself, which is

why we worship in the first place, because

worship is essentially a way of saying

"Thank you". The most basic Buddhist

attitude is gratitude. Gratitude is the other

side of the coin of generosity. They go

together. We are the recipients of the dana

paramita of all the Buddhas. We are

protected by their sila paramita,

we start to esteem the ten thousand things

photo: Buddhists of many traditions worship at Milton Keynes Peace Stupa, by Kaspalita

encouraged by their vitya and kshanti,

encompassed by their dhyana and released

by their prajna, which goes much deeper

than we can even imagine. To practice with body, speech and mind is

best. Practice is not some kind of self-

improvement technique - though it does

have an improving effect. It is a way of

letting go of the ego, the self-power

generator, and finding that when we turn

down the little light that is so close to our

nose that it blinds us, there is actually a

much greater light that was not generated

by ourselves. It is that great light that

enables us to wander the world freely,

greeting one another with "Namo Amida

Bu" in all the thousands of languages that

people speak. A smile is a smile the world

over, and the person who walks in the aura

of greater beings can smile freely just about

anywhere.

With body speech and mind, humbly I

prostrate

and make offerings both set out and

imagined.

I confess my wrong deeds from all time

and rejoice in the virtues of all.

Please stay until samsara ceases and

turn the wheel of Dharma for us.

I dedicate all virtues to great

enlightenment.

Thanks be. Namo Amida Bu. ­

There is a famous Buddhist saying -

the glass I'm drinking from is whole

and, at the same time, already

broken.

The life I'm living is always new, full of vital,

progressive, competitive, expansive energy,

and at the same time it is cracked and

cracked again.

It's not a great thing to be dependent, I

really want to be independent. I really want

other people, my friends, to be strong and

independent, and when this happens, it

results in life, which is full of “me”. And still

there is something “natural” in this “survival

energy”. It is hard and enjoyable, when

nature grows, nettle and rose next to each

other, who is going to win? Who is stronger?

Probably the rose, even though the dry

weather can kill the rose.

I also would like to merge, to be one again,

with life, with nature, with the other/Other,

with my parents…..

Being separate and being one, I want to be

in control of these drives. The voice in me

saying “grow up”, how to make it happen? I

know that both drives are not right. Why are

they not right, when they are “there”?

I live day by day, quite a full life, we all do

something with our life.

Are you living your meaningful life?

Are you living the life?

Faith, show me the meaningRunning Tide: Faith & praise

RT 7RT 6

Sometimes I love this question, this

constantly present question, inviting me,

asking me, encouraging me, to be present,

to engage, to act, to reflect.

Sometimes I hate these questions. What is

the meaning in your life? What good have

you done in your life? What good have you

done for other people? Straight response -

one thing is good for one person, and bad

for the second one, I did it with a “good”

intention, and the results are “bad”,

because I just didn't know enough. Or could

the bad results turn into good results at the

end?

Hugely surprising that I don't know it all.

We do our best to know it all, to get the

knowledge, skills, confidence, maturity, and

still we don't know it all.

Can I engage with both wanting to know, and

knowing that I won't know?

Can I engage with both wanting to be

independent, and knowing that I will never

be?

Can I engage with both wanting to merge,

and knowing that we humans cannot live in

that place?

To engage with both …. faith can help, and

it can show me that this could be the

meaning, to live one's journey alongside

other people's journeys, and to do it with all

these different conflicted parts inside me.

Namo Amida Bu ­

Faith, show me the meaningby Sumaya

Crack! by via Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c0t0s0d0/2243034045/

encouraged by their vitya and kshanti,

encompassed by their dhyana and released

by their prajna, which goes much deeper

than we can even imagine. To practice with body, speech and mind is

best. Practice is not some kind of self-

improvement technique - though it does

have an improving effect. It is a way of

letting go of the ego, the self-power

generator, and finding that when we turn

down the little light that is so close to our

nose that it blinds us, there is actually a

much greater light that was not generated

by ourselves. It is that great light that

enables us to wander the world freely,

greeting one another with "Namo Amida

Bu" in all the thousands of languages that

people speak. A smile is a smile the world

over, and the person who walks in the aura

of greater beings can smile freely just about

anywhere.

With body speech and mind, humbly I

prostrate

and make offerings both set out and

imagined.

I confess my wrong deeds from all time

and rejoice in the virtues of all.

Please stay until samsara ceases and

turn the wheel of Dharma for us.

I dedicate all virtues to great

enlightenment.

Thanks be. Namo Amida Bu. ­

There is a famous Buddhist saying -

the glass I'm drinking from is whole

and, at the same time, already

broken.

The life I'm living is always new, full of vital,

progressive, competitive, expansive energy,

and at the same time it is cracked and

cracked again.

It's not a great thing to be dependent, I

really want to be independent. I really want

other people, my friends, to be strong and

independent, and when this happens, it

results in life, which is full of “me”. And still

there is something “natural” in this “survival

energy”. It is hard and enjoyable, when

nature grows, nettle and rose next to each

other, who is going to win? Who is stronger?

Probably the rose, even though the dry

weather can kill the rose.

I also would like to merge, to be one again,

with life, with nature, with the other/Other,

with my parents…..

Being separate and being one, I want to be

in control of these drives. The voice in me

saying “grow up”, how to make it happen? I

know that both drives are not right. Why are

they not right, when they are “there”?

I live day by day, quite a full life, we all do

something with our life.

Are you living your meaningful life?

Are you living the life?

Faith, show me the meaningRunning Tide: Faith & praise

RT 7RT 6

Sometimes I love this question, this

constantly present question, inviting me,

asking me, encouraging me, to be present,

to engage, to act, to reflect.

Sometimes I hate these questions. What is

the meaning in your life? What good have

you done in your life? What good have you

done for other people? Straight response -

one thing is good for one person, and bad

for the second one, I did it with a “good”

intention, and the results are “bad”,

because I just didn't know enough. Or could

the bad results turn into good results at the

end?

Hugely surprising that I don't know it all.

We do our best to know it all, to get the

knowledge, skills, confidence, maturity, and

still we don't know it all.

Can I engage with both wanting to know, and

knowing that I won't know?

Can I engage with both wanting to be

independent, and knowing that I will never

be?

Can I engage with both wanting to merge,

and knowing that we humans cannot live in

that place?

To engage with both …. faith can help, and

it can show me that this could be the

meaning, to live one's journey alongside

other people's journeys, and to do it with all

these different conflicted parts inside me.

Namo Amida Bu ­

Faith, show me the meaningby Sumaya

Crack! by via Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c0t0s0d0/2243034045/

Volunteering in Amida Delhi

to an afternoon class routine that would run

each week from Friday to Wednesday

inclusive giving me Wednesday afternoon

and Thursday off. Each class was usually

about an hour and a half. Two of the English

classes were followed by half-hour Buddhist

classes. Then there was usually tea and

namkeem [salty snacks] with our hosts and

finally the trip back with Shiv, our cycle

rickshaw driver, to our district, Ashok Nagar.

It usually took about an hour to get to class,

but one class was two hours away. In short -

this exercise took all afternoon. Just as well

too, as often in the afternoons the electric

would go off for a few hours!

Classes

Initially I didn't think I was contributing

much to the classes other than by being a

second person adding some weight to the

importance of the teachings by Sahishnu and

acting out rhymes - a key component of

many of the classes.

At the start I was sometimes a little

overwhelmed. For example, by three

enthusiastic kids all wanting to have a

written exercise marked at the same time! I

once found myself attempting to help a child

fill in the missing vowels of a series of words,

only to discover they had a poor knowledge

of the alphabet. I should have given up at

this stage and encouraged the kid to do what

Sahishnu had suggested for kids with little

English, colour in the sheet. However I

persisted in attempting to teach the kid the

first letters of the alphabet including the vital

a e and i letters - a bit much for both of us I

can see now!

However in time I began to appreciate the

value of having a second person to shepherd

enthusiastic kids into some sort of form and

to regularly scan the fringes of the classes for

disruptive behaviour.

What I didn't fully appreciate until Sahishnu

pointed out to me, was that in time, the kids

do learn. So we might have some significant

disruption to start with and I mightn't totally

deal with it, but they did get the idea at some

level and they too wanted less chaos. In time

things tended to get easier because they

adapted! Maybe kids are not so bad after all.

Pureland/Zen

I, a Zen Buddhist, complete with brown stole,

was pleased to be welcomed into the shrine

room of another tradition. But that

acceptance did lead to me questioning that

tradition that in a way sometimes, I confess,

verged on aggressive.

So what was it like for a Zen practitioner

working alongside Pureland practioners?

Fine mainly, I think, although there was a

tendency on my part to notice the differences

in our traditions, particularly living in such

close quarters to people practicing in a

different school. There was also the challenge

of being away from home, Indian culture,

and the project itself, which pushed me to

take refuge in what I believed my practice to

be.

I was quite inspired by Jnanamati's practice

and his composure, which led to me

questioning my own practise.

Now, some weeks after those first days, I can

appreciate that there are significant

similarities in both our traditions. Both are

fundamentally simple. Amida-Shu

encourages us to sincerely chant: Namo

Amida Bu. My own tradition, DharmaMind,

RT 9

Running Tide: Faith & praise

From Amida Delhi

Mid-January, having just completed a 12 day

pilgrimage with my own Teacher and

Sangha, I arrived at Amida Delhi's local

metro station, Shahdara. I was met by

Jnanamati, Amida UK's main man on the

project at the time, and we took a cycle

rickshaw to my new home for 6 weeks. A

home that, having watched the rider wrestle

his way through seemingly chaotic traffic, a

poor road surface and finally through what I

would describe as alleyways, I was

pleasantly surprised by.

We occupied the second floor of a two storey

house, each of us having our own room as

well as there being a separate kitchen,

communal room, shrine room, bathroom and

toilet. By 'we' I mean Jnanamati, myself and

soon to join us, the project manager:

Sahishnu. Jnanamati, who had already been

here now for some months, would only be

with us for another two weeks. So 'his' room

doubled also as our communal room. Our

hosts, Prakash and his family, occupied the

ground floor. Our floor was actually quite

new only having only being built some

months ago! Mod-cons included: a semi

automatic washing machine, a fridge, and the

modern Westerners essential: an internet

connected computer.

Jnanamati cooked a welcome and tasty curry

that night. The following day we went to my

first class in Shanti Nagar. This was my start

by Michael Cosgrove, Amida Delhi volunteer: Jan-Feb 2012

RT 8

Volunteering in Amida Delhi

to an afternoon class routine that would run

each week from Friday to Wednesday

inclusive giving me Wednesday afternoon

and Thursday off. Each class was usually

about an hour and a half. Two of the English

classes were followed by half-hour Buddhist

classes. Then there was usually tea and

namkeem [salty snacks] with our hosts and

finally the trip back with Shiv, our cycle

rickshaw driver, to our district, Ashok Nagar.

It usually took about an hour to get to class,

but one class was two hours away. In short -

this exercise took all afternoon. Just as well

too, as often in the afternoons the electric

would go off for a few hours!

Classes

Initially I didn't think I was contributing

much to the classes other than by being a

second person adding some weight to the

importance of the teachings by Sahishnu and

acting out rhymes - a key component of

many of the classes.

At the start I was sometimes a little

overwhelmed. For example, by three

enthusiastic kids all wanting to have a

written exercise marked at the same time! I

once found myself attempting to help a child

fill in the missing vowels of a series of words,

only to discover they had a poor knowledge

of the alphabet. I should have given up at

this stage and encouraged the kid to do what

Sahishnu had suggested for kids with little

English, colour in the sheet. However I

persisted in attempting to teach the kid the

first letters of the alphabet including the vital

a e and i letters - a bit much for both of us I

can see now!

However in time I began to appreciate the

value of having a second person to shepherd

enthusiastic kids into some sort of form and

to regularly scan the fringes of the classes for

disruptive behaviour.

What I didn't fully appreciate until Sahishnu

pointed out to me, was that in time, the kids

do learn. So we might have some significant

disruption to start with and I mightn't totally

deal with it, but they did get the idea at some

level and they too wanted less chaos. In time

things tended to get easier because they

adapted! Maybe kids are not so bad after all.

Pureland/Zen

I, a Zen Buddhist, complete with brown stole,

was pleased to be welcomed into the shrine

room of another tradition. But that

acceptance did lead to me questioning that

tradition that in a way sometimes, I confess,

verged on aggressive.

So what was it like for a Zen practitioner

working alongside Pureland practioners?

Fine mainly, I think, although there was a

tendency on my part to notice the differences

in our traditions, particularly living in such

close quarters to people practicing in a

different school. There was also the challenge

of being away from home, Indian culture,

and the project itself, which pushed me to

take refuge in what I believed my practice to

be.

I was quite inspired by Jnanamati's practice

and his composure, which led to me

questioning my own practise.

Now, some weeks after those first days, I can

appreciate that there are significant

similarities in both our traditions. Both are

fundamentally simple. Amida-Shu

encourages us to sincerely chant: Namo

Amida Bu. My own tradition, DharmaMind,

RT 9

Running Tide: Faith & praise

From Amida Delhi

Mid-January, having just completed a 12 day

pilgrimage with my own Teacher and

Sangha, I arrived at Amida Delhi's local

metro station, Shahdara. I was met by

Jnanamati, Amida UK's main man on the

project at the time, and we took a cycle

rickshaw to my new home for 6 weeks. A

home that, having watched the rider wrestle

his way through seemingly chaotic traffic, a

poor road surface and finally through what I

would describe as alleyways, I was

pleasantly surprised by.

We occupied the second floor of a two storey

house, each of us having our own room as

well as there being a separate kitchen,

communal room, shrine room, bathroom and

toilet. By 'we' I mean Jnanamati, myself and

soon to join us, the project manager:

Sahishnu. Jnanamati, who had already been

here now for some months, would only be

with us for another two weeks. So 'his' room

doubled also as our communal room. Our

hosts, Prakash and his family, occupied the

ground floor. Our floor was actually quite

new only having only being built some

months ago! Mod-cons included: a semi

automatic washing machine, a fridge, and the

modern Westerners essential: an internet

connected computer.

Jnanamati cooked a welcome and tasty curry

that night. The following day we went to my

first class in Shanti Nagar. This was my start

by Michael Cosgrove, Amida Delhi volunteer: Jan-Feb 2012

RT 8

Volunteering in Amida DelhiRunning Tide: Faith & praise

encourages us to simply be still. Both shy

away from attempts to do or control things,

Amida calls this 'self power' whereas

DharmaMind talks about 'the practice of no

practice'. Indeed both Pureland and Zen both

came from the same, Tendai, tradition. One

reason for the Pureland school's separation

was the question; how can a compassionate

Dharma only be available to those who had

the time to meditate?

Without getting into the detail of the

arguments that led from conflict to the

reconciliation suggested above, I can say that

there was lots of discussion on this topic.

Especially with Jnanamati, who handled this

sensitive subject gently and articulately. So

gently, I felt like one of the children in our

English classes, with a certain curiosity as to

where the boundary was. I was eventually to

find out.

I admit outside of the classes I made a

number of challenges to the approach that

Sahishnu and Jnanamati (Jnanamati in

particular) seemed to take to what seemed

like minor issues. For example dealing with a

mice issue we had. From my perspective

Jnanamati's approach was overly

ideologically driven, focussing on the first

precept rather than what I would describe as

a heart/mind approach which might have

suggested a different, perhaps brutal, but

more realistic strategy.

Eventually Jnanamati told me with some

emotion to stop telling him how to practice

the Dharma, “Respect!”

I am reminded that rather than assert or

search aggressively for a view, that I should

let others views be expressed in good time

and consider them accordingly.

After all this I feel like I am better at living

with the slightly uncomfortable feeling (for

me) that there is something quite compelling

about just chanting Namo Amida Bu with

complete faith.

There are good practical reasons I realise to

do voluntary work. However what this trip

highlighted for me was that I also had deeper

reasons for wanting to volunteer. In

particular a desire to sincerely engage with

people (as opposed to the more usual

traveller activity of sight-seeing).

Working in a place is, in my view, the best

way of engaging with a culture. What was

unusual about this trip was the breadth of

engagement this project afforded.

I have worked on other projects in other

countries before. Usually we were in some

sort of compound, our working engagement

with the culture limited to this space, locals

helping us out and our handlers. There is no

compound in the Amida project. We were in

the midst of the people we were working

with, dealing directly with Indian children

and their community representatives or

Buddhist parents. A little more animated

than a Danish park I had helped ready for a

festival, or a Belgian ruin I had helped to

excavate; and consequently all the richer an

experience.

Sincere engagement seems to me what it's all

about, whether that is a richer travelling

experience, dealing with disruptive children,

or exploring the Dharma. I think this

engagement is a natural expression of what

arises when I am still (in meditation) or when

I chant. ­

Michael Cosgrove is a member of DharmaMind.

Michael knows the answer to a question Sahishnu puts to the class...

Amida India appeal

You’ve just read about some of the important work we do in India. How we live and work next to our friends, teaching them English, giving them the chance to get better jobs and help their families. Many of these live hand to mouth, and worry about having enough money to buy food and medicine.

Many of the Buddhist families we support are extremely poor, and often have little support from the few monks in India (who are usually living on the edge of poverty themselves). A few years ago these families asked to share our Pureland practice, with its emphasis on all beings being acceptable just as they are. This sharing of practice led to a Delhi branch of Amida-Shu and, earlier this year, the ordination of our first Indian Order members, Suvidya and Suando, as Gankonin (Priests of Amida Order). Suvidya and Suando are materially poor but spiritually wealthy, they share their faith in Amida with their own community with great joy, and have been essential supports to the work of the Order in Delhi.

In 2010 Dharmavidya and Jnanamati visited a rural community in North Lakhimpur, Assam, where a small Buddhist organisation runs an English medium primary school. Jnanamati stayed for three months to help teach English and create networks of support for the school and local Tai ethnic Buddhist communities. This year we will place a volunteer with the school for five months and a twinning project with a school in England is underway.

The support of volunteers and International Order members who visit India is vital to the faith of these communities, who can often feel isolated in their own country. To keep teaching English to these impoverished communities, and to maintain our spiritual friendships, we need your help.

Ways to help:

Hold a fund-raising event:Tabletop sale? Sponsored dance? Bathing in a tub of baked beans? Let us know what you can do.

Make a one-off personal donation: Either by cheque, to Amida Trust c/o Sukhavati (see back page), or donate online at http://amidatrust.ning.com via Paypal.

Set-up a regular payment to Amida to support the Indian project. For more information please contact Jnanamati: Jnamamati@amidatrust.com or call 0207 263 2183

RT 10 RT 11

Volunteering in Amida DelhiRunning Tide: Faith & praise

encourages us to simply be still. Both shy

away from attempts to do or control things,

Amida calls this 'self power' whereas

DharmaMind talks about 'the practice of no

practice'. Indeed both Pureland and Zen both

came from the same, Tendai, tradition. One

reason for the Pureland school's separation

was the question; how can a compassionate

Dharma only be available to those who had

the time to meditate?

Without getting into the detail of the

arguments that led from conflict to the

reconciliation suggested above, I can say that

there was lots of discussion on this topic.

Especially with Jnanamati, who handled this

sensitive subject gently and articulately. So

gently, I felt like one of the children in our

English classes, with a certain curiosity as to

where the boundary was. I was eventually to

find out.

I admit outside of the classes I made a

number of challenges to the approach that

Sahishnu and Jnanamati (Jnanamati in

particular) seemed to take to what seemed

like minor issues. For example dealing with a

mice issue we had. From my perspective

Jnanamati's approach was overly

ideologically driven, focussing on the first

precept rather than what I would describe as

a heart/mind approach which might have

suggested a different, perhaps brutal, but

more realistic strategy.

Eventually Jnanamati told me with some

emotion to stop telling him how to practice

the Dharma, “Respect!”

I am reminded that rather than assert or

search aggressively for a view, that I should

let others views be expressed in good time

and consider them accordingly.

After all this I feel like I am better at living

with the slightly uncomfortable feeling (for

me) that there is something quite compelling

about just chanting Namo Amida Bu with

complete faith.

There are good practical reasons I realise to

do voluntary work. However what this trip

highlighted for me was that I also had deeper

reasons for wanting to volunteer. In

particular a desire to sincerely engage with

people (as opposed to the more usual

traveller activity of sight-seeing).

Working in a place is, in my view, the best

way of engaging with a culture. What was

unusual about this trip was the breadth of

engagement this project afforded.

I have worked on other projects in other

countries before. Usually we were in some

sort of compound, our working engagement

with the culture limited to this space, locals

helping us out and our handlers. There is no

compound in the Amida project. We were in

the midst of the people we were working

with, dealing directly with Indian children

and their community representatives or

Buddhist parents. A little more animated

than a Danish park I had helped ready for a

festival, or a Belgian ruin I had helped to

excavate; and consequently all the richer an

experience.

Sincere engagement seems to me what it's all

about, whether that is a richer travelling

experience, dealing with disruptive children,

or exploring the Dharma. I think this

engagement is a natural expression of what

arises when I am still (in meditation) or when

I chant. ­

Michael Cosgrove is a member of DharmaMind.

Michael knows the answer to a question Sahishnu puts to the class...

Amida India appeal

You’ve just read about some of the important work we do in India. How we live and work next to our friends, teaching them English, giving them the chance to get better jobs and help their families. Many of these live hand to mouth, and worry about having enough money to buy food and medicine.

Many of the Buddhist families we support are extremely poor, and often have little support from the few monks in India (who are usually living on the edge of poverty themselves). A few years ago these families asked to share our Pureland practice, with its emphasis on all beings being acceptable just as they are. This sharing of practice led to a Delhi branch of Amida-Shu and, earlier this year, the ordination of our first Indian Order members, Suvidya and Suando, as Gankonin (Priests of Amida Order). Suvidya and Suando are materially poor but spiritually wealthy, they share their faith in Amida with their own community with great joy, and have been essential supports to the work of the Order in Delhi.

In 2010 Dharmavidya and Jnanamati visited a rural community in North Lakhimpur, Assam, where a small Buddhist organisation runs an English medium primary school. Jnanamati stayed for three months to help teach English and create networks of support for the school and local Tai ethnic Buddhist communities. This year we will place a volunteer with the school for five months and a twinning project with a school in England is underway.

The support of volunteers and International Order members who visit India is vital to the faith of these communities, who can often feel isolated in their own country. To keep teaching English to these impoverished communities, and to maintain our spiritual friendships, we need your help.

Ways to help:

Hold a fund-raising event:Tabletop sale? Sponsored dance? Bathing in a tub of baked beans? Let us know what you can do.

Make a one-off personal donation: Either by cheque, to Amida Trust c/o Sukhavati (see back page), or donate online at http://amidatrust.ning.com via Paypal.

Set-up a regular payment to Amida to support the Indian project. For more information please contact Jnanamati: Jnamamati@amidatrust.com or call 0207 263 2183

RT 10 RT 11

The Bodhisattva who sees and hears the sufferings of the world

my core. I sometimes catch sight of her in other

people, and their actions. The mind is conditioned by

its objects. I try to maintain her as my object, to lay

my mind on her mind and my heart on her heart.

When times are dark, and she seems to be far away, I

try to understand it as me having moved away from

her, not the other way around. She, as the eternal

'other' is always there. I, on the other hand, shift,

change, sulk, get angry, waver, am trapped by, and

in, my mutability and my frailty. I push her away

through doubt, through endless and fruitless

speculation about her 'reality', through obsessive

rituals, through anxiety about whether and in what

ways I should be asking her to 'intercede' and

whether my 'prayers' to her are couched in

appropriate terms and so on and so forth. The only

way through this slough of despond is to call and

keep calling, I find. The proverbial light bulb,

energised by the urgency of my call, turns on,

flickers perilously, goes out, flickers again, and this

time stays on for longer. Theoretical problems find a

'resolution' of sorts in the mere fact of religious

practice itself. This, to my mind, is where the 'faith

and praise' come in: if anything can transform my

cupidity, hatred and delusion into something at least

a bit more seemly, then it is surely the calling.

Amida's Universal Vow assures us that our calling will

be heard. Shinran wrote:

Xuanzang. As (much to the tolerant bemusement of

my pupils!) I prostrated, lit incense and made my

devotions to the Buddha on the temple steps, I

speculated perhaps a little fancifully, that if it hadn't

been for Kuan Yin these sutras may not have arrived

in China at all : constantly harried by bandits and

warlords, and crossing deserts and mountain ranges

in diabolical weather conditions on a pilgrimage

which took him several years, all the time guarding

his sacred cargo, Xuanzang tells us that the name of

Kuan Yin was forever on his lips. Calling to her kept

him going. When he finally arrived back in Xian, then

known as Chang'an, the scripture scrolls were stored

in the Wild Goose Pagoda. I was also aware that

Chang-an was where, earlier, the great Buddhist

scholar Kumarajiva had made his translation of the

Lotus Sutra: the very sutra which dealt so eloquently

with Kuan Yin in its 'Universal Gateway' chapter. Here

I was in a place whose very walls resonated with the

call of Kuan Yin! Thank you, merciful Bodhisattva.

I worry sometimes that I don't have the answers to

the big questions that are often expected of so-called

'religious' people. I don't, for example, have a

convincingly clear explanation of why bad things

happen to good people. Although I'm interested in

chaplaincy work, I don't really know what to say to

people whose loved ones have just died, if I'm

honest. It feels presumptuous to say anything when I

RT 13

Obstructing evils have become the substance of

virtues;

It is like the relation of ice and water:

The more ice, the more water;

The more hindrances, the more virtues.

Yes, sometimes, if I am fortunate, the chanting turns

things inside out : somehow, negative experiences

can be reframed, one can recognise in them the

many hands of Kuan Yin, collecting the meltwater,

and her face, always gently smiling....For her,

controversially, mercy is always more important than

justice or even wisdom, and I, as a foolish being ,

can relate easily and with gratitude to this.

Three years ago, during a school trip to China, I was

privileged to visit the Temple of the Wild Goose

Pagoda at the city of Xian. Xian is at the eastern end

of the Silk Road , the route by which hundreds of

Buddhist Scriptures first entered China, brought from

India by one of my heroes, the Tang Dynasty monk

fear the disillusion which I know will visit me, too, in

such circumstances. Perhaps, to all of us at such

times on one level words like 'faith' or 'praise' seem at

best irrelevant, and at worst part of a cruel joke. I

don't feel I can give any sort of consolation based on

'reasoning'. But perhaps I just might try to find the

courage to tell people that, with their permission, I

could chant 'Kuan Yin' for them, as I have found great

consolation in 'just doing it', or even suggest, if the

moment seems right, that they call out themselves,

as it's really helped me... If they want to know who

she is, I could even say ,if it seemed appropriate,

that she's a bit like the Virgin Mary, to provide them

with a comparison they might understand. The Divine

Feminine.

Who really knows?

We rock our little frail boats, tear our sails to tatters,

break our masts, all with the furious storm of our

passions, our terror and despair. Under us, the great

swelling ocean of Kuan Yin's love...­

Namo Kuan Shih Yin P'u-Sa.

Running Tide: Faith & praise

I call upon the Bodhisattva who sees and hears the sufferings of the world

Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and close

associate of Amida Buddha, has been kind to me.

Twelve or so years ago, for various reasons, life was

very difficult for my immediate family. Many families

go through times like this, I guess. Whenever we

glimpsed what seemed to be the light at the end of

the tunnel, it turned out to be an oncoming train

ready to knock us down again.

I did, though, meet Kuan Yin at more or less the same

period in my life. I cannot really explain how. It's not

just that I can't remember: the meeting did not take

place in a conventional way. I had been a Buddhist

for over a decade by this time without having really

been aware of her, but now I began to notice her

everywhere. I'd had a basic grounding in Buddhist

iconography and looked up Kuan Yin to confirm that

the delicate little lady, yes, holding her willow

branch and her vase of nectar, and clad in the robes

of a nun, who had begun to appear regularly in, as it

were, my peripheral vision, was indeed her. Passing

clouds, or garden shrubs, or rocks seemed, on

occasions, and rather unnervingly, to assume her

shape. Often, I would forget her for days at a time,

only for her to reappear arbitrarily, heard or seen

fleetingly, or 'sensed'. Eventually, extreme scepticism

was overcome because I needed her help and had

read in the Lotus Sutra that she offered it

unconditionally to those who called on her :

Whoever sees her face or learns about her,

Who can hold this Bodhisattva's name,

Will leave behind the sorrows of existence....

I called on her. Namo Kuan Shih Yin P'u-Sa. I felt

embarrassed about what I felt might be the

'superstition' of this, the fact that despair had

reduced me to howling forth a cry out of the

wilderness. The sorrows of existence were all part

and parcel of being human and I should just endure, I

told myself, with good old Theravada stoicism -

without resorting to seeking solace in fairy tales. But

cry, and howl, and call out the name I did , internally

and externally, over and over again. I had barely

heard of the Pure Land tradition at this time, and

was later amazed to discover (on becoming a Friend

of Amida) that what I'd been doing was, of course, a

version of the Nembutsu! What I had felt were my

ignorance and lack of sophistication were the very

things deemed essential by Honen himself !

Time passed. Things started to get better. Lots of

people helped us. Thank you. The family set out

tentatively on a road to recovery which at last felt

firmer with every step. Things could probably have

improved anyway, without the help of the Divine

Giver of Compassion, one might say. But they might

not have done. My son bought be a book on Kuan Yin

(complete with a small portable shrine) for

Christmas. “You and me and Kuan Yin have a special

relationship, dad”, he said. I cried.

Quite simply, I adore Kuan Yin. In my experience, her

light shines incomparably bright, and the loveliness

of her indivisible compassion is without parallel. I

have kept calling her. She has gradually, almost

imperceptibly, moved from the corner of my eye to

By Richard Ollier

RT 12 photo by Elton Melo via Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltonmelo/

The Bodhisattva who sees and hears the sufferings of the world

my core. I sometimes catch sight of her in other

people, and their actions. The mind is conditioned by

its objects. I try to maintain her as my object, to lay

my mind on her mind and my heart on her heart.

When times are dark, and she seems to be far away, I

try to understand it as me having moved away from

her, not the other way around. She, as the eternal

'other' is always there. I, on the other hand, shift,

change, sulk, get angry, waver, am trapped by, and

in, my mutability and my frailty. I push her away

through doubt, through endless and fruitless

speculation about her 'reality', through obsessive

rituals, through anxiety about whether and in what

ways I should be asking her to 'intercede' and

whether my 'prayers' to her are couched in

appropriate terms and so on and so forth. The only

way through this slough of despond is to call and

keep calling, I find. The proverbial light bulb,

energised by the urgency of my call, turns on,

flickers perilously, goes out, flickers again, and this

time stays on for longer. Theoretical problems find a

'resolution' of sorts in the mere fact of religious

practice itself. This, to my mind, is where the 'faith

and praise' come in: if anything can transform my

cupidity, hatred and delusion into something at least

a bit more seemly, then it is surely the calling.

Amida's Universal Vow assures us that our calling will

be heard. Shinran wrote:

Xuanzang. As (much to the tolerant bemusement of

my pupils!) I prostrated, lit incense and made my

devotions to the Buddha on the temple steps, I

speculated perhaps a little fancifully, that if it hadn't

been for Kuan Yin these sutras may not have arrived

in China at all : constantly harried by bandits and

warlords, and crossing deserts and mountain ranges

in diabolical weather conditions on a pilgrimage

which took him several years, all the time guarding

his sacred cargo, Xuanzang tells us that the name of

Kuan Yin was forever on his lips. Calling to her kept

him going. When he finally arrived back in Xian, then

known as Chang'an, the scripture scrolls were stored

in the Wild Goose Pagoda. I was also aware that

Chang-an was where, earlier, the great Buddhist

scholar Kumarajiva had made his translation of the

Lotus Sutra: the very sutra which dealt so eloquently

with Kuan Yin in its 'Universal Gateway' chapter. Here

I was in a place whose very walls resonated with the

call of Kuan Yin! Thank you, merciful Bodhisattva.

I worry sometimes that I don't have the answers to

the big questions that are often expected of so-called

'religious' people. I don't, for example, have a

convincingly clear explanation of why bad things

happen to good people. Although I'm interested in

chaplaincy work, I don't really know what to say to

people whose loved ones have just died, if I'm

honest. It feels presumptuous to say anything when I

RT 13

Obstructing evils have become the substance of

virtues;

It is like the relation of ice and water:

The more ice, the more water;

The more hindrances, the more virtues.

Yes, sometimes, if I am fortunate, the chanting turns

things inside out : somehow, negative experiences

can be reframed, one can recognise in them the

many hands of Kuan Yin, collecting the meltwater,

and her face, always gently smiling....For her,

controversially, mercy is always more important than

justice or even wisdom, and I, as a foolish being ,

can relate easily and with gratitude to this.

Three years ago, during a school trip to China, I was

privileged to visit the Temple of the Wild Goose

Pagoda at the city of Xian. Xian is at the eastern end

of the Silk Road , the route by which hundreds of

Buddhist Scriptures first entered China, brought from

India by one of my heroes, the Tang Dynasty monk

fear the disillusion which I know will visit me, too, in

such circumstances. Perhaps, to all of us at such

times on one level words like 'faith' or 'praise' seem at

best irrelevant, and at worst part of a cruel joke. I

don't feel I can give any sort of consolation based on

'reasoning'. But perhaps I just might try to find the

courage to tell people that, with their permission, I

could chant 'Kuan Yin' for them, as I have found great

consolation in 'just doing it', or even suggest, if the

moment seems right, that they call out themselves,

as it's really helped me... If they want to know who

she is, I could even say ,if it seemed appropriate,

that she's a bit like the Virgin Mary, to provide them

with a comparison they might understand. The Divine

Feminine.

Who really knows?

We rock our little frail boats, tear our sails to tatters,

break our masts, all with the furious storm of our

passions, our terror and despair. Under us, the great

swelling ocean of Kuan Yin's love...­

Namo Kuan Shih Yin P'u-Sa.

Running Tide: Faith & praise

I call upon the Bodhisattva who sees and hears the sufferings of the world

Kuan Yin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion and close

associate of Amida Buddha, has been kind to me.

Twelve or so years ago, for various reasons, life was

very difficult for my immediate family. Many families

go through times like this, I guess. Whenever we

glimpsed what seemed to be the light at the end of

the tunnel, it turned out to be an oncoming train

ready to knock us down again.

I did, though, meet Kuan Yin at more or less the same

period in my life. I cannot really explain how. It's not

just that I can't remember: the meeting did not take

place in a conventional way. I had been a Buddhist

for over a decade by this time without having really

been aware of her, but now I began to notice her

everywhere. I'd had a basic grounding in Buddhist

iconography and looked up Kuan Yin to confirm that

the delicate little lady, yes, holding her willow

branch and her vase of nectar, and clad in the robes

of a nun, who had begun to appear regularly in, as it

were, my peripheral vision, was indeed her. Passing

clouds, or garden shrubs, or rocks seemed, on

occasions, and rather unnervingly, to assume her

shape. Often, I would forget her for days at a time,

only for her to reappear arbitrarily, heard or seen

fleetingly, or 'sensed'. Eventually, extreme scepticism

was overcome because I needed her help and had

read in the Lotus Sutra that she offered it

unconditionally to those who called on her :

Whoever sees her face or learns about her,

Who can hold this Bodhisattva's name,

Will leave behind the sorrows of existence....

I called on her. Namo Kuan Shih Yin P'u-Sa. I felt

embarrassed about what I felt might be the

'superstition' of this, the fact that despair had

reduced me to howling forth a cry out of the

wilderness. The sorrows of existence were all part

and parcel of being human and I should just endure, I

told myself, with good old Theravada stoicism -

without resorting to seeking solace in fairy tales. But

cry, and howl, and call out the name I did , internally

and externally, over and over again. I had barely

heard of the Pure Land tradition at this time, and

was later amazed to discover (on becoming a Friend

of Amida) that what I'd been doing was, of course, a

version of the Nembutsu! What I had felt were my

ignorance and lack of sophistication were the very

things deemed essential by Honen himself !

Time passed. Things started to get better. Lots of

people helped us. Thank you. The family set out

tentatively on a road to recovery which at last felt

firmer with every step. Things could probably have

improved anyway, without the help of the Divine

Giver of Compassion, one might say. But they might

not have done. My son bought be a book on Kuan Yin

(complete with a small portable shrine) for

Christmas. “You and me and Kuan Yin have a special

relationship, dad”, he said. I cried.

Quite simply, I adore Kuan Yin. In my experience, her

light shines incomparably bright, and the loveliness

of her indivisible compassion is without parallel. I

have kept calling her. She has gradually, almost

imperceptibly, moved from the corner of my eye to

By Richard Ollier

RT 12 photo by Elton Melo via Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltonmelo/

(Un)conditional love and Monday Nembutsu

meaningful to us have expectations of us, and that we likewise expect things from them. Ideally, love would not be based on expectations, and spiritual and divine love are like that. But I think love between finite and foolish beings is by definition conditional and finite. How can we express it otherwise, as small dependent parts of the bigger whole?

I consider each concrete relationship we have as a motivation for us to love this concrete person, who has a unique place and function within our network. Let's love this person for what he is, but if you are disappointed in something in this person, let's try to fix this problem. This seems to me to be more realistic that just accepting the disappointment. I'm sure the person you love will love you in return in one way or another, and he will be willing not to disappoint you, unless there's a good reason for this.

Can we maintain love without expectations? For a therapist this is possible, for his patients ought to occupy the same place in their network, and the relationship is not reciprocal. For Amida Buddha it is the same, for his love is infinite, and he loves all sentient beings for what they are, without expecting anything from them. For Shakyamuni Buddha, I guess it starts to get more difficult. I'm sure he loved all his disciples and all sentient beings, but at the same time we read that he loved Ananda the most. For this to be true, there must have been reasons…

The point I want to make is that concrete conditional love between concrete people who know each other is often more personally important and intense, but at the same time much more difficult and disappointing, than unconditional love. I suppose most people love this one way, determined by conditions. In principle, unconditional love should be the same for all people, or even for all sentient beings and for the universe as a whole, for there are no conditions that shape the love, or that give it a particular flavor. I would say, let's love each other as much and as unconditionally as we can - you can do this anywhere, anytime - but don't forget to love your concrete particular meaningful mother, father, spouse, child, sangha member and so on. This second type of love will prove more difficult and disappointing, but can we (and do we want to) live without this love or without these people? Not at all, we love them and care about them more than strangers, just because of the conditions that shape our esteem for them… I'm sure they will appreciate your unconditional love towards them, but I guess they will expect more from you… ­

RT 15

A few weeks back Rev’d Sujatin suggested we could share some chanting on each Monday, and whilst chanting be conscious of the shared nature of the chant. Now, on Mondays, our chant is heard all around our planet.

Our new online group 'Monday Nembutsu', on , already has over twenty

members and we know this Monday call is heard in Australia, Belgium, England, Canada and Hawaii. We consciously add our voices to the chant and welcome love into all our lives. Please log-on and tell us where else the chant is being heard on Mondays.

When we chant we are opening ourselves to the love that we know is real. In our sharing of this call we know of a real connection, an actual community that does link around our planet. Here we feel held by love, grounded in love, inspired by love, part of a loving chain around our planet; from this place we naturally act more lovingly, we turn to healing and nurturing and caring. This is love's journey.

Our practice is to just say Namo Amida Bu. On each Monday, at any time through the day, we will chant; knowing that this is a shared community practice, with the intention of welcoming love as our life guide, of calling to Amida Buddha.

Please join this chain each Monday.

amidatrust.ning.com

­

Monday Nembutsuby Rob McCarthy

Rob McCarthy photographed at the foot of a dragon staircase at Doi Suthep Buddhist temple, Northern Thailand.

Running Tide: Faith & praise

(Un)conditional love some thoughts and some questions...

I have just finished re-reading Dharmavidya's Love and Its Disappointment and this has left me with some questions and thoughts that I would like to share.

Dharmavidya argues that the therapist should love the client unconditionally. No objection to that. At the same time I assume that most of us Amida Buddhists believe that Amida Buddha loves us unconditionally. With this I also agree.

I started thinking about this when someone in our Belgian Sangha said that he loved someone else unconditionally, just as they are. Of course, this is a sincere and beautiful expression of love, but is it possible to realize this? Should unconditional love towards people who are meaningful to us be something we should aim for?

I think, just as Dharmavidya proposes in his book, that we can only love people we know and who are meaningful to us. Of course we can feel an expression of love towards a stranger, and in most cases it is possible to love these people unconditionally, because we don't know them.

On the other hand, we know the people in our network who we love. The relationship we have with them is shaped by our own and their own

pasts and futures, and is determined by conditions, and is therefore not unconditional.

A therapist ought to love his patients unconditionally, because in his role as a therapist he should be able to accept anything the patient presents. Do we do the same with people we know and who are meaningful to us? I would say we don't, and I would suggest that it is better not to do so, because these people are meaningful to us. This meaning, which leads to esteem and to love, is in its nature concrete, conditioned and unique, as everybody we know is different, in themselves and to us, and as a part of our network. Without this unique meaningfulness, each person would be a stranger to us.

When someone says to me “I love you unconditionally”, of course this is well meant and I appreciate it, but I question the possibility of being loved just as I am, for it seems to take away both the conditionality and uniqueness of the relationship I have with this person.

Both loving a person for just what he is, and loving a person for this and this reason, seem to be inadequate ways of expressing something. Both seem to express too much and too little at the same time, when we assume that people who are

By Dankwart Kleinjans

RT 14 Painting by Abu Said Ubaud Allah Ibn Bakhitshu, from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve. From Maragh in Mongolian Iran 1294/99. Public domain.

(Un)conditional love and Monday Nembutsu

meaningful to us have expectations of us, and that we likewise expect things from them. Ideally, love would not be based on expectations, and spiritual and divine love are like that. But I think love between finite and foolish beings is by definition conditional and finite. How can we express it otherwise, as small dependent parts of the bigger whole?

I consider each concrete relationship we have as a motivation for us to love this concrete person, who has a unique place and function within our network. Let's love this person for what he is, but if you are disappointed in something in this person, let's try to fix this problem. This seems to me to be more realistic that just accepting the disappointment. I'm sure the person you love will love you in return in one way or another, and he will be willing not to disappoint you, unless there's a good reason for this.

Can we maintain love without expectations? For a therapist this is possible, for his patients ought to occupy the same place in their network, and the relationship is not reciprocal. For Amida Buddha it is the same, for his love is infinite, and he loves all sentient beings for what they are, without expecting anything from them. For Shakyamuni Buddha, I guess it starts to get more difficult. I'm sure he loved all his disciples and all sentient beings, but at the same time we read that he loved Ananda the most. For this to be true, there must have been reasons…

The point I want to make is that concrete conditional love between concrete people who know each other is often more personally important and intense, but at the same time much more difficult and disappointing, than unconditional love. I suppose most people love this one way, determined by conditions. In principle, unconditional love should be the same for all people, or even for all sentient beings and for the universe as a whole, for there are no conditions that shape the love, or that give it a particular flavor. I would say, let's love each other as much and as unconditionally as we can - you can do this anywhere, anytime - but don't forget to love your concrete particular meaningful mother, father, spouse, child, sangha member and so on. This second type of love will prove more difficult and disappointing, but can we (and do we want to) live without this love or without these people? Not at all, we love them and care about them more than strangers, just because of the conditions that shape our esteem for them… I'm sure they will appreciate your unconditional love towards them, but I guess they will expect more from you… ­

RT 15

A few weeks back Rev’d Sujatin suggested we could share some chanting on each Monday, and whilst chanting be conscious of the shared nature of the chant. Now, on Mondays, our chant is heard all around our planet.

Our new online group 'Monday Nembutsu', on , already has over twenty

members and we know this Monday call is heard in Australia, Belgium, England, Canada and Hawaii. We consciously add our voices to the chant and welcome love into all our lives. Please log-on and tell us where else the chant is being heard on Mondays.

When we chant we are opening ourselves to the love that we know is real. In our sharing of this call we know of a real connection, an actual community that does link around our planet. Here we feel held by love, grounded in love, inspired by love, part of a loving chain around our planet; from this place we naturally act more lovingly, we turn to healing and nurturing and caring. This is love's journey.

Our practice is to just say Namo Amida Bu. On each Monday, at any time through the day, we will chant; knowing that this is a shared community practice, with the intention of welcoming love as our life guide, of calling to Amida Buddha.

Please join this chain each Monday.

amidatrust.ning.com

­

Monday Nembutsuby Rob McCarthy

Rob McCarthy photographed at the foot of a dragon staircase at Doi Suthep Buddhist temple, Northern Thailand.

Running Tide: Faith & praise

(Un)conditional love some thoughts and some questions...

I have just finished re-reading Dharmavidya's Love and Its Disappointment and this has left me with some questions and thoughts that I would like to share.

Dharmavidya argues that the therapist should love the client unconditionally. No objection to that. At the same time I assume that most of us Amida Buddhists believe that Amida Buddha loves us unconditionally. With this I also agree.

I started thinking about this when someone in our Belgian Sangha said that he loved someone else unconditionally, just as they are. Of course, this is a sincere and beautiful expression of love, but is it possible to realize this? Should unconditional love towards people who are meaningful to us be something we should aim for?

I think, just as Dharmavidya proposes in his book, that we can only love people we know and who are meaningful to us. Of course we can feel an expression of love towards a stranger, and in most cases it is possible to love these people unconditionally, because we don't know them.

On the other hand, we know the people in our network who we love. The relationship we have with them is shaped by our own and their own

pasts and futures, and is determined by conditions, and is therefore not unconditional.

A therapist ought to love his patients unconditionally, because in his role as a therapist he should be able to accept anything the patient presents. Do we do the same with people we know and who are meaningful to us? I would say we don't, and I would suggest that it is better not to do so, because these people are meaningful to us. This meaning, which leads to esteem and to love, is in its nature concrete, conditioned and unique, as everybody we know is different, in themselves and to us, and as a part of our network. Without this unique meaningfulness, each person would be a stranger to us.

When someone says to me “I love you unconditionally”, of course this is well meant and I appreciate it, but I question the possibility of being loved just as I am, for it seems to take away both the conditionality and uniqueness of the relationship I have with this person.

Both loving a person for just what he is, and loving a person for this and this reason, seem to be inadequate ways of expressing something. Both seem to express too much and too little at the same time, when we assume that people who are

By Dankwart Kleinjans

RT 14 Painting by Abu Said Ubaud Allah Ibn Bakhitshu, from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve. From Maragh in Mongolian Iran 1294/99. Public domain.

Early Morning

Early morning, quietly lying

Nurturing raindrops gently falling

My being is filled with joy

As my thoughts become one

Namoamidabutsunamoamidabutsunamoamidabutsu

Contentment met with glimpses of clarity

Unique to this experience

Gratitude

Inexpressible in bombu terms

How my nature cries out

In perfect unison with multitudes

Of those gone before, and yet,

To come again

My song, not new,

But so perfectly complete

Namo Amida Butsu

Barb MacCarl

Barb MacCarl belongs to the Kelowna Buddhist Temple, B.C. Canada.

“After hearing Amida's gentle voice for most of my life, I finally responded 3 years ago and have since experienced nothing but gratitude and fulfillment.

The quiet and stillness of morning is always a special time to say the Nembutsu, it was

such a morning before I got out of bed that this poem came to me.”­

Poetry: Early Morning

At the end of last year I wrote a little poem called

'Faithful’ - it was printed in the autumn Running

Tide. The poem grew out of watching the daily

troubles of the sunflowers in my garden. As I

wrote the poem I was convinced of the truth of

my perception. I did not think anything more

would grow on the flower apart from the three

small leaves.

At the beginning of October I was astonished to

see a little flower rising up, hidden between the

chaplets of leaves, above the naked, three metre

tall stalk! It grew open, into an amazing,

wonderful, solitary sunflower with hundreds of

seeds.

The stalk is still in my garden. I brought the

flower inside to protect it from the birds, who got

all the others seeds that were outside through

the winter.

Today, (April 2012) I planted twenty five little

plants, grown from the seeds of this one

sunflower, and I put thirty more seeds into fresh

earth to germinate. I have only used one tenth of

the whole flowers worth of seed... So many more

could be planted, each one creating hundreds

and hundreds of new seeds. Each one bringing

colour, light and beauty.

Last autumn I saw the very hard battle of this

one sunflower that survived, but now I see its

enormous richness. Praise this seed and all the

conditions which make it just as it is.

I have learnt to be careful with my perceptions. It

can be good to look beyond the havoc.­

Faithful

In the middle of a flowerbedjust in front of my livingroomstands a firm stalk.It's the only survivor of eight sunflower plants,carefully sowed and planted outbut night by night eaten by slugs or snailswhich hide from sunlight.

Its stalk is huge and nakedsome little dead stems hanging here and thereno sunflower, as it was eaten before it could grow.At the top, three times three leavesas three chaplets around a maypolereaching to the skydrinking sun and lightwonderful in their joy and beauty,offering all they have.

No mindtwists about all the havoc below them.They live, faithful to the call of Light.They inspire me.

Perceptionby Katrien Sercu

Sunflower by Claudio.Ar via creative commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/claudio_ar/Freesia in the rain (right) by John Morgan via creative commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/

Poetry: Perception

RT 16 RT 17

Early Morning

Early morning, quietly lying

Nurturing raindrops gently falling

My being is filled with joy

As my thoughts become one

Namoamidabutsunamoamidabutsunamoamidabutsu

Contentment met with glimpses of clarity

Unique to this experience

Gratitude

Inexpressible in bombu terms

How my nature cries out

In perfect unison with multitudes

Of those gone before, and yet,

To come again

My song, not new,

But so perfectly complete

Namo Amida Butsu

Barb MacCarl

Barb MacCarl belongs to the Kelowna Buddhist Temple, B.C. Canada.

“After hearing Amida's gentle voice for most of my life, I finally responded 3 years ago and have since experienced nothing but gratitude and fulfillment.

The quiet and stillness of morning is always a special time to say the Nembutsu, it was

such a morning before I got out of bed that this poem came to me.”­

Poetry: Early Morning

At the end of last year I wrote a little poem called

'Faithful’ - it was printed in the autumn Running

Tide. The poem grew out of watching the daily

troubles of the sunflowers in my garden. As I

wrote the poem I was convinced of the truth of

my perception. I did not think anything more

would grow on the flower apart from the three

small leaves.

At the beginning of October I was astonished to

see a little flower rising up, hidden between the

chaplets of leaves, above the naked, three metre

tall stalk! It grew open, into an amazing,

wonderful, solitary sunflower with hundreds of

seeds.

The stalk is still in my garden. I brought the

flower inside to protect it from the birds, who got

all the others seeds that were outside through

the winter.

Today, (April 2012) I planted twenty five little

plants, grown from the seeds of this one

sunflower, and I put thirty more seeds into fresh

earth to germinate. I have only used one tenth of

the whole flowers worth of seed... So many more

could be planted, each one creating hundreds

and hundreds of new seeds. Each one bringing

colour, light and beauty.

Last autumn I saw the very hard battle of this

one sunflower that survived, but now I see its

enormous richness. Praise this seed and all the

conditions which make it just as it is.

I have learnt to be careful with my perceptions. It

can be good to look beyond the havoc.­

Faithful

In the middle of a flowerbedjust in front of my livingroomstands a firm stalk.It's the only survivor of eight sunflower plants,carefully sowed and planted outbut night by night eaten by slugs or snailswhich hide from sunlight.

Its stalk is huge and nakedsome little dead stems hanging here and thereno sunflower, as it was eaten before it could grow.At the top, three times three leavesas three chaplets around a maypolereaching to the skydrinking sun and lightwonderful in their joy and beauty,offering all they have.

No mindtwists about all the havoc below them.They live, faithful to the call of Light.They inspire me.

Perceptionby Katrien Sercu

Sunflower by Claudio.Ar via creative commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/claudio_ar/Freesia in the rain (right) by John Morgan via creative commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/

Poetry: Perception

RT 16 RT 17

A Pureland Sutra by John MasefieldRunning Tide: Faith & praise

For all together sang with throats

So tuned, that the intense

Colour and odour pearled the notes

And passed into the sense.

And as the saint drew near, he heard

The birds talk, each to each,

The fire-bird to the glory-bird.

He understood their speech.

One said: “The saint was terrified

Because the hunters came.”

Another said: “The bloodhounds cried,

And all their eyes were flame.”

Another said: “No shame to him,

For mortal men are blind:

They cannot see beyond the grim

Into the peace behind.”

Another sang: “They cannot know,

Unless we give the clue,

The power that waits in them below

The things they are and do.”

Another sang: “They never guess,

That deep within them stand

Courage and peace and loveliness,

Wisdom and skill of hand.”

The birds go on to give the saint more

encouragement, and he goes back across the

stream to meet the hunter. The hunter reveals

herself as a sick and ‘dwindling’ woman. And the

saint exhorts her to leave this world, which she

duly does.

A while back I made an informal study of lots of

different people’s spiritual experiences - from the

reports in William James book, to earlier and more

contemporary accounts. With these in mind it is

hard not to read Masefield’s description as an

account of his own spiritual experience.

The parallels to Buddhist descriptions are striking,

from the metaphor of crossing to the other shore

to the land of light and jewel like fruits and

flowers.

Last Sunday, in the midst of a short English

heatwave after weeks of rain, I walked through

the rolling hills of Herefordshire. I walked through

copses, and ancient orchards, and meadows strewn

with buttercups and Queen Anne’s Lace.

My friend Anna Stenning (who has just started to

learn the bellmaster role for our evening services

in Malvern) is studying the poetry of Edward

Thomas and Robert Frost for her PhD. She was

leading a group of us through the paths those two

poets used to walk, and past the house that Frost

once lived in.

At the halfway point of the walk we stopped in the

shade of deep hedgerows and flowing horse-

chestnuts and someone read out an extract from

the John Masefield poem, The Hounds of Hell.

Masefield was poet Laureate of the UK from 1930

to 1967, and he was born in Ledbury, not far from

where we were walking.

The poem, a ballad, tells the story of a ‘Wild

Hunt’. The wild hunt is a myth that pops up

throughout Europe. The dead, or fairies, or ghosts

are riding through the skies. They have wild horses

and hounds and are hunting...

In the ballad a hunter terrorises the land taking

livestock. The people call upon their priests who

are unable to say a word in the face of it. Then St.

Withiel comes to hear of the hunt, and attempts to

make a stand against the ghostly rider. He thinks

he can do better than the priests, but his own

voice fails and he becomes its prey.

The saint runs, chased by the spectral hunter and

its hounds until he crosses a stream and enters a

Pureland.

I do not use the word lightly. As in the Larger

Pureland Sutra, in Masefield’s Pureland, there are

silver sands and birds that sing the Dharma.

Here’s the section from the poem:

The saint leaped far into the stream

And struggled to the shore.

The hunt died like an evil dream,

A strange land lay before.

He waded to a glittering land,

With brighter light than ours;

The water ran on silver sand

By yellow water flowers.

The fishes nosed the stream to rings

As petals floated by,

The apples were like orbs of kings,

Against a glowing sky.

On tall and steady stalks of green

The outwards flowers grew.

The ghost-flower, silver like a queen,

The queen-flower streaked with blue

The king-flower, crimson on his stalk,

With frettings in his crown;

The peace-flower, purple, from the chalk,

The flower that loves the down.

Lilies like thoughts, roses like words,

In the sweet brain of June;

The bees there, like the stock-dove birds,

Breathed all the air with croon.

Purple and golden hung the plums;

Like slaves bowed down with gems

The peach-trees were; sweet scented gums

Oozed clammy from their stems.

And birds of every land were there,

Like flowers that sang and flew;

All beauty that makes singing fair

That sunny garden knew.

A Pureland Sutra by John Masefieldby Kaspalita

Åsgårdsreien by Peter Nicolai Arbo (Norway 1831-1892) Painted 1872. Public Domain image

RT 18 RT 19

A Pureland Sutra by John MasefieldRunning Tide: Faith & praise

For all together sang with throats

So tuned, that the intense

Colour and odour pearled the notes

And passed into the sense.

And as the saint drew near, he heard

The birds talk, each to each,

The fire-bird to the glory-bird.

He understood their speech.

One said: “The saint was terrified

Because the hunters came.”

Another said: “The bloodhounds cried,

And all their eyes were flame.”

Another said: “No shame to him,

For mortal men are blind:

They cannot see beyond the grim

Into the peace behind.”

Another sang: “They cannot know,

Unless we give the clue,

The power that waits in them below

The things they are and do.”

Another sang: “They never guess,

That deep within them stand

Courage and peace and loveliness,

Wisdom and skill of hand.”

The birds go on to give the saint more

encouragement, and he goes back across the

stream to meet the hunter. The hunter reveals

herself as a sick and ‘dwindling’ woman. And the

saint exhorts her to leave this world, which she

duly does.

A while back I made an informal study of lots of

different people’s spiritual experiences - from the

reports in William James book, to earlier and more

contemporary accounts. With these in mind it is

hard not to read Masefield’s description as an

account of his own spiritual experience.

The parallels to Buddhist descriptions are striking,

from the metaphor of crossing to the other shore

to the land of light and jewel like fruits and

flowers.

Last Sunday, in the midst of a short English

heatwave after weeks of rain, I walked through

the rolling hills of Herefordshire. I walked through

copses, and ancient orchards, and meadows strewn

with buttercups and Queen Anne’s Lace.

My friend Anna Stenning (who has just started to

learn the bellmaster role for our evening services

in Malvern) is studying the poetry of Edward

Thomas and Robert Frost for her PhD. She was

leading a group of us through the paths those two

poets used to walk, and past the house that Frost

once lived in.

At the halfway point of the walk we stopped in the

shade of deep hedgerows and flowing horse-

chestnuts and someone read out an extract from

the John Masefield poem, The Hounds of Hell.

Masefield was poet Laureate of the UK from 1930

to 1967, and he was born in Ledbury, not far from

where we were walking.

The poem, a ballad, tells the story of a ‘Wild

Hunt’. The wild hunt is a myth that pops up

throughout Europe. The dead, or fairies, or ghosts

are riding through the skies. They have wild horses

and hounds and are hunting...

In the ballad a hunter terrorises the land taking

livestock. The people call upon their priests who

are unable to say a word in the face of it. Then St.

Withiel comes to hear of the hunt, and attempts to

make a stand against the ghostly rider. He thinks

he can do better than the priests, but his own

voice fails and he becomes its prey.

The saint runs, chased by the spectral hunter and

its hounds until he crosses a stream and enters a

Pureland.

I do not use the word lightly. As in the Larger

Pureland Sutra, in Masefield’s Pureland, there are

silver sands and birds that sing the Dharma.

Here’s the section from the poem:

The saint leaped far into the stream

And struggled to the shore.

The hunt died like an evil dream,

A strange land lay before.

He waded to a glittering land,

With brighter light than ours;

The water ran on silver sand

By yellow water flowers.

The fishes nosed the stream to rings

As petals floated by,

The apples were like orbs of kings,

Against a glowing sky.

On tall and steady stalks of green

The outwards flowers grew.

The ghost-flower, silver like a queen,

The queen-flower streaked with blue

The king-flower, crimson on his stalk,

With frettings in his crown;

The peace-flower, purple, from the chalk,

The flower that loves the down.

Lilies like thoughts, roses like words,

In the sweet brain of June;

The bees there, like the stock-dove birds,

Breathed all the air with croon.

Purple and golden hung the plums;

Like slaves bowed down with gems

The peach-trees were; sweet scented gums

Oozed clammy from their stems.

And birds of every land were there,

Like flowers that sang and flew;

All beauty that makes singing fair

That sunny garden knew.

A Pureland Sutra by John Masefieldby Kaspalita

Åsgårdsreien by Peter Nicolai Arbo (Norway 1831-1892) Painted 1872. Public Domain image

RT 18 RT 19

What’s on guide

What’s on guide Summer events in the Amida world

TERAPIA ZEN Y PSICOLOGIA BUDISTA en Vitoria, Espana

June 9th - 10th

Centro de psicología y Consciencia Plena, Vitoria, Espana

Un teller sobre los elementos de terapia del perspectivo de psicologia budista como presentado en el

obra de David Brazier en sus libros Terapia Zen, El Buda Que Siente y Padece, y otros.

Para obtenir informacion, pregunta a Oscar: omzcoaching@gmail.com

ZEN THERAPY: EMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

June 16, 2012 from 10am to 5pm

Sukhavati, Finsbury Park, London

What is the daimonic? Any natural function which has the power to take over the whole person, an

archetypal function of human experience, and an existential reality. Being possessed by daimonic

energies leads one to psychosis; suppressing them leads one to the anti-daimonic, which is another word

for apathy. Eros, sex, anger, rage, craving for power: the things the daimonic evokes are powerful and

unambiguous. This workshop will be mainly experiential and interspersed with study of texts from the

Zen and the existentialist tradition. With Manu Bazzano and Dharmavidya David Brazier. Cost: £50/day

£75/weekend.

JEALOUSY AND SELF DEFEAT

June 17, 2012 from 10am to 5pm

Sukhavati, Finsbury Park, London

The green emotion is one of the most powerfully self-sabotaging. Resentment and bitterness introduces

a painful poison into relationships and into individual life. Envy and jealous, possessiveness and

indiviousness, have an obsessive quality and well illustrate the principle of Buddhist psychology that

dysfunctional states can be stable in the sense of being circular and self-reinforcing. We all suffer from

it from time to time and some have their lives destroyed by it. It lies behind much violence and self-

destruction. In this day we will explore the theme in our own lives and those of the people we work

with. Day Seminar with Dharmavidya David Brazier. Cost: £50/day £75/weekend.

Running Tide: Faith & Praise

The saint in the poem crosses to the other shore

out of desperation. He is being chased by this foul

hunter and in his fleeing jumps into the stream

and fights his way across the current to the far

shore.

I’m sure this is one way in which people do cross

to the Pureland. Pursued by our demons, we think

we have nowhere to run and then suddenly the

light changes and we are somewhere else.

Masefield’s demons are part of the outside world

and perhaps, as students as modern psychology, we

would tend to place these ghosts inside in our own

minds. In the poem the hunter chases many men,

and the hunt happens time and time again.

Wherever you think these demons live, there is

something universal about them. We are all chased

by similar spectral hunters.

As Pureland Buddhists we would tend to place the

power beyond the grim as outside ourselves,

rather than deep within ourselves. But I suspect

this is not as important a distinction as it first

appears.

Perhaps the most striking difference is that

Masefield’s saint tells the ‘Woman Death’ to leave,

whist Buddhist teachings suggest that there is a

greater wisdom in making friends with our

demons, rather than banishing them to another

place, from which they are sure to return.

Did St. Withiel slip into another world, or did he

simply have the scales removed from his eyes and

see this world as it really is, with its silver flowers

and Dharma singing birds?

Today I am leaning towards the second answer, but

I suspect it's the wrong sort of question to be

asking.

Speaking of those Dharma singing birds - it is clear

from Masefield’s poem that liberation is not only

the experience of the Pureland but also it is what

St. Withiel receives from the birds singing - the

lesson that beyond what people say and do is

something wise and compassionate.

In Buddhist terms we might say that if you can look

beyond your karma, and samskaras, you will find

the world is full of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

In the traditional Buddhist scheme of things we are

reborn into the Pureland in order to hear the

Dharma, to have something transmitted from the

unconditioned realm, and somehow carry it with us

into this world.

I am reminded of the image on the cover of this

issue - look closely and you will see Kannon

carrying Amida Buddha.

It is not the small differences in language, or the

difference in how this saint behaves compared to

some Buddhist sages, that I take away from this

poem - but the universality of spiritual experience,

the sense of certainty that this place of silver

sands exists, and the sense that having seen it we

are fuelled on towards liberation.

Namo Amida Bu ­

Contemplation of the jeweled trees in the Pureland from the Tiama Mandala.

RT 20

What’s on guide

What’s on guide Summer events in the Amida world

TERAPIA ZEN Y PSICOLOGIA BUDISTA en Vitoria, Espana

June 9th - 10th

Centro de psicología y Consciencia Plena, Vitoria, Espana

Un teller sobre los elementos de terapia del perspectivo de psicologia budista como presentado en el

obra de David Brazier en sus libros Terapia Zen, El Buda Que Siente y Padece, y otros.

Para obtenir informacion, pregunta a Oscar: omzcoaching@gmail.com

ZEN THERAPY: EMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

June 16, 2012 from 10am to 5pm

Sukhavati, Finsbury Park, London

What is the daimonic? Any natural function which has the power to take over the whole person, an

archetypal function of human experience, and an existential reality. Being possessed by daimonic

energies leads one to psychosis; suppressing them leads one to the anti-daimonic, which is another word

for apathy. Eros, sex, anger, rage, craving for power: the things the daimonic evokes are powerful and

unambiguous. This workshop will be mainly experiential and interspersed with study of texts from the

Zen and the existentialist tradition. With Manu Bazzano and Dharmavidya David Brazier. Cost: £50/day

£75/weekend.

JEALOUSY AND SELF DEFEAT

June 17, 2012 from 10am to 5pm

Sukhavati, Finsbury Park, London

The green emotion is one of the most powerfully self-sabotaging. Resentment and bitterness introduces

a painful poison into relationships and into individual life. Envy and jealous, possessiveness and

indiviousness, have an obsessive quality and well illustrate the principle of Buddhist psychology that

dysfunctional states can be stable in the sense of being circular and self-reinforcing. We all suffer from

it from time to time and some have their lives destroyed by it. It lies behind much violence and self-

destruction. In this day we will explore the theme in our own lives and those of the people we work

with. Day Seminar with Dharmavidya David Brazier. Cost: £50/day £75/weekend.

Running Tide: Faith & Praise

The saint in the poem crosses to the other shore

out of desperation. He is being chased by this foul

hunter and in his fleeing jumps into the stream

and fights his way across the current to the far

shore.

I’m sure this is one way in which people do cross

to the Pureland. Pursued by our demons, we think

we have nowhere to run and then suddenly the

light changes and we are somewhere else.

Masefield’s demons are part of the outside world

and perhaps, as students as modern psychology, we

would tend to place these ghosts inside in our own

minds. In the poem the hunter chases many men,

and the hunt happens time and time again.

Wherever you think these demons live, there is

something universal about them. We are all chased

by similar spectral hunters.

As Pureland Buddhists we would tend to place the

power beyond the grim as outside ourselves,

rather than deep within ourselves. But I suspect

this is not as important a distinction as it first

appears.

Perhaps the most striking difference is that

Masefield’s saint tells the ‘Woman Death’ to leave,

whist Buddhist teachings suggest that there is a

greater wisdom in making friends with our

demons, rather than banishing them to another

place, from which they are sure to return.

Did St. Withiel slip into another world, or did he

simply have the scales removed from his eyes and

see this world as it really is, with its silver flowers

and Dharma singing birds?

Today I am leaning towards the second answer, but

I suspect it's the wrong sort of question to be

asking.

Speaking of those Dharma singing birds - it is clear

from Masefield’s poem that liberation is not only

the experience of the Pureland but also it is what

St. Withiel receives from the birds singing - the

lesson that beyond what people say and do is

something wise and compassionate.

In Buddhist terms we might say that if you can look

beyond your karma, and samskaras, you will find

the world is full of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

In the traditional Buddhist scheme of things we are

reborn into the Pureland in order to hear the

Dharma, to have something transmitted from the

unconditioned realm, and somehow carry it with us

into this world.

I am reminded of the image on the cover of this

issue - look closely and you will see Kannon

carrying Amida Buddha.

It is not the small differences in language, or the

difference in how this saint behaves compared to

some Buddhist sages, that I take away from this

poem - but the universality of spiritual experience,

the sense of certainty that this place of silver

sands exists, and the sense that having seen it we

are fuelled on towards liberation.

Namo Amida Bu ­

Contemplation of the jeweled trees in the Pureland from the Tiama Mandala.

RT 20

PURELAND INTENSIVE PRACTICE WEEK

July 16, 2012 at 6:30am to July 20, 2012 at 9pm

Sukhavati House, London

The Pureland approach centres on faith with nembutsu as the medium by which ordinary (bombu) beings

discover connection with Amida Tathagata, the Buddha who exemplifies limitless love and compassion.

Whilst nembutsu is the primary practice for Pureland Buddhists we might also say that engaging in other

practices is another way in which we can express our gratitude for the grace we receive and the joy that

comes from hearing the Name. By this we are acknowledging in a profoundly spiritual way the nature of

what Amida brings to our lives.

This is an opportunity to join us in a period of intense daily practice. Participants do not need to attend

every day but can be involved as and when available to do so. During the week we will engage in a range

of different practices reflecting the Amida shu approach, including sutra recitation, silent contemplation,

nembutsu chanting as well as daily service.

The daily practice schedule will commence each day at 6.30 and end at 9.00 a.m. The second period will

be between 10.30 and 2.00 p.m. The evening session will run from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

PURELAND SERVICE

Amida Atherstone, 23A Long Street, Atherstone, CV9 1AY

Join us for the first Pureland service to take place in Atherstone. Led by Kusumavarsa, Gankonin (Priest)

and Amida Order member. The service will include chanting and sitting meditation plus Dharma

discussion. There will be a 'potluck' vegetarian supper and refreshments afterwards.

Donations welcome. Contact Kusuma (01827 719926) or Jnanamati (0207 2632183) for more information.

FOR DETAILS OF REGULAR PURELAND MEETINGS AND CONTACT DETAILS, SEE OVERLEAF.

The Tathagata pours down the rain of Dharma on great and poor, good and bad, alike. How we

are affected depends upon our karmic condition, but grace cuts through karma.

~ Dharmavidya

SILA SESSHIN

June 18, 2012 at 8am to June 22, 2012 at 4pm

Sahishnu's House in Bolsover, Derbyshire, UK

This intensive five day retreat is focussed upon the nature, application and meaning of Buddhist ethics. In

this approach to Buddhism, ethical guidelines are considered as expressions of and supports to faith and

the mind of awakening; as such they are "koans" or "hwadu" - foci for spiritual practice to be worked with

on-goingly through life.

Each ethical precept is a facet of nembutsu, an aspect of the relationship between the foolish limited

being and intuited, unimpeded light of awakening. This retreat will include silent sitting, daily recitation

of 156 precepts, groups for self-reflection and for discussion of the application of ethics in daily life and

in society. There will also be extended periods of silence. This retreat forms part of the series of five

sesshin recommended to all Amida Buddhists who wish to seriously deepen their practice.

The cost: £250 fully residential or £65 per day

(concessions available)

BUDDHIST ACTION DAY

July 7, 2012 all day

Gillespie Park, London

This Interfaith work session will comprise of extensive repairs to a seating area outside the main ecology

centre building. In effect the finished structure will be an arbor and a place for visitors to sit quietly.

Constructed of recycled lengths of hazel, wired together into a trellis, into which living branches will be

woven. The finished job will resemble a green cave and provide a cool place of refuge during warm

weather. Contact Modgala at Sukhavati for more information.

CHANTING INTENSIVE

July 8, 2012 from 10am to 6pm

Abdisstraat 10 in Gent, Belgium

An eight hour nembutsu chanting event hosted by Lut Moerman, Amida Shu member, on behalf of the

Belgium sangha. This is an opportunity to share in the spiritual intensity of calling the 'Name' with other

nembutsu practioners and to enter into the deep experience of Pureland practice.

If you are interested in coming please contact jnanamati@gmail.com for details

What’s on guideRunning Tide: Faith & Praise

PURELAND INTENSIVE PRACTICE WEEK

July 16, 2012 at 6:30am to July 20, 2012 at 9pm

Sukhavati House, London

The Pureland approach centres on faith with nembutsu as the medium by which ordinary (bombu) beings

discover connection with Amida Tathagata, the Buddha who exemplifies limitless love and compassion.

Whilst nembutsu is the primary practice for Pureland Buddhists we might also say that engaging in other

practices is another way in which we can express our gratitude for the grace we receive and the joy that

comes from hearing the Name. By this we are acknowledging in a profoundly spiritual way the nature of

what Amida brings to our lives.

This is an opportunity to join us in a period of intense daily practice. Participants do not need to attend

every day but can be involved as and when available to do so. During the week we will engage in a range

of different practices reflecting the Amida shu approach, including sutra recitation, silent contemplation,

nembutsu chanting as well as daily service.

The daily practice schedule will commence each day at 6.30 and end at 9.00 a.m. The second period will

be between 10.30 and 2.00 p.m. The evening session will run from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

PURELAND SERVICE

Amida Atherstone, 23A Long Street, Atherstone, CV9 1AY

Join us for the first Pureland service to take place in Atherstone. Led by Kusumavarsa, Gankonin (Priest)

and Amida Order member. The service will include chanting and sitting meditation plus Dharma

discussion. There will be a 'potluck' vegetarian supper and refreshments afterwards.

Donations welcome. Contact Kusuma (01827 719926) or Jnanamati (0207 2632183) for more information.

FOR DETAILS OF REGULAR PURELAND MEETINGS AND CONTACT DETAILS, SEE OVERLEAF.

The Tathagata pours down the rain of Dharma on great and poor, good and bad, alike. How we

are affected depends upon our karmic condition, but grace cuts through karma.

~ Dharmavidya

SILA SESSHIN

June 18, 2012 at 8am to June 22, 2012 at 4pm

Sahishnu's House in Bolsover, Derbyshire, UK

This intensive five day retreat is focussed upon the nature, application and meaning of Buddhist ethics. In

this approach to Buddhism, ethical guidelines are considered as expressions of and supports to faith and

the mind of awakening; as such they are "koans" or "hwadu" - foci for spiritual practice to be worked with

on-goingly through life.

Each ethical precept is a facet of nembutsu, an aspect of the relationship between the foolish limited

being and intuited, unimpeded light of awakening. This retreat will include silent sitting, daily recitation

of 156 precepts, groups for self-reflection and for discussion of the application of ethics in daily life and

in society. There will also be extended periods of silence. This retreat forms part of the series of five

sesshin recommended to all Amida Buddhists who wish to seriously deepen their practice.

The cost: £250 fully residential or £65 per day

(concessions available)

BUDDHIST ACTION DAY

July 7, 2012 all day

Gillespie Park, London

This Interfaith work session will comprise of extensive repairs to a seating area outside the main ecology

centre building. In effect the finished structure will be an arbor and a place for visitors to sit quietly.

Constructed of recycled lengths of hazel, wired together into a trellis, into which living branches will be

woven. The finished job will resemble a green cave and provide a cool place of refuge during warm

weather. Contact Modgala at Sukhavati for more information.

CHANTING INTENSIVE

July 8, 2012 from 10am to 6pm

Abdisstraat 10 in Gent, Belgium

An eight hour nembutsu chanting event hosted by Lut Moerman, Amida Shu member, on behalf of the

Belgium sangha. This is an opportunity to share in the spiritual intensity of calling the 'Name' with other

nembutsu practioners and to enter into the deep experience of Pureland practice.

If you are interested in coming please contact jnanamati@gmail.com for details

What’s on guideRunning Tide: Faith & Praise

Contact Amida

UNITED KINGDOM

Amida London is the office of the head of the Amida Order. It hosts regular day retreats and other events.

Sukhavati21 Sussex WayLondon N7 6RT

Telephone: 0207 263 2183modgala@amidatrust.comwww.amidalondon.org.uk

Amida Newcastle has regular weekly meetings in Gosforth.

sujatin@gmail.comhttp://lotusinthemud.typepad.com/amida_newcastle/

Amida Sheffield have weekly meetings.

Telephone: 0114 272 4290amidasheffield@blueyonder.co.ukhttp://pureland.wordpress.com

Amida Malvern have weekly & monthly meetings in Malvern.

Telephone: 01684 572 444kaspalita@amidatrust.comwww.malvernsangha.co.uk

EUROPE

Amida Belgium has regular meetings, with a retreat open to newcomers once a year.

http://www.namoamidabu.be/

WORLDWIDE

Amida USA & Amida Hawai'iThe Amida USA is a non-profit church based in Hawai’i created to further the spread and practice of Amida-shu Pureland Buddhism.

http://www.amidausa.org/

Amida Mosaic (Ontario, Canada)The Amida Mosaic Sangha is a community of spiritual friends. Amida Mosaic Sangha activities are held in London Ontario under the leadership of Prajnatara T. Bryant, a Gankonin with the Amida Order.

amidamosaic@gmail.com http://amidamosaic.com

Amida IsraelAmida Israel Sangha meets on the 3rd Sunday each month, 20:30 - 22:30 for practice & sharing.

ymatri@gmail.com

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